1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to beverage cooling methods and apparatus; and, more particularly to beverage keg cooling apparatus utilizing a refrigerateable cooling material.
2. Description of Related Art
Typical beverage keg cooling is effected by placing the keg within a tub of ice or a mixture of ice and water. The use of a cold pack structure for cooling beverage kegs is shown in the prior art. The idea of a jacket or wrap that can be used in association with cooling a beverage container has been known and described in a number of patents.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,875 discloses a disposable beer barrel jacket with four longitudinal pockets used to hold ice. U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,807 discloses the concept of an insulating jacket that has pockets to accept frozen gel packs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,111 discloses an insulating wrap with gel pockets to keep an item cool. U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,069 discloses a wrap around insulating wrap with frozen gel as part of the unit to keep an item cold. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,582,028 and 5,269,368 disclose cooling wraps with longitudinal pockets for frozen gel. In this device refrigerant cases are mounted to upper and lower portions of the housing of the structure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,993 indicates a barrel core defining an insulating jacket to be positioned about the side walls of an associated keg structure and the like, wherein the jacket structure includes pockets to receive plastic bags to be filled with water. U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,605 describes a wrap for a standard beer keg containing pockets to accommodate gel packs containing a freezable gel therein. The draw back of these prior art devices is that they cannot accommodate the various sized beverage kegs.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a beverage keg cooling arrangement which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed, which is of a durable and reliable construction, which is of a design and utility to allow use with any standard size beverage keg, has a carrying strap to make it more portable and is machine washable.